


This week: Duxford!

by hlocnr



Category: Cabin Pressure, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-01
Updated: 2014-08-05
Packaged: 2018-02-03 00:46:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1724999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hlocnr/pseuds/hlocnr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>MJN must ask Sherlock and Watson for help when some champagne goes missing from the flight. While Arthur gets overexcited, Douglas and Herc compete and Martin tries to impress Theresa - with less than desirable results!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arthur consults the Great Detective.

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't think of a good title, but this pretty much sums it up. I have a few chapters written already, so I will try to upload at regular intervals (weekly, probably). In this chapter, Sherlock and John have another big argument a couple of days after the Empty Hearse. I'm not sure where this fits in in the Cabin Pressure universe, but it's definitely after Xinzhou (Carolyn knows about Martin and Theresa) but, apart from that, I don't know. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. In the words of John Finnemore: it goes something like this!:

**221b Baker Street. 7th of November.**

 

"Sherlock, what is this all about?"

"John, the most important thing in my entire life is distraction. I can't bare the boredom of normal civilian life, I must constantly have an occupation. I see no excitement worth speaking of here, so I commit myself to the only stimulant available."

John was always startled by his best friend's calmness about the way in which he so pointlessly and effortlessly discarded a small portion of his life. He accepted that Sherlock needed something to stimulate his great mind, but he could never understand why said stimulant had to be such a destructive force. He knew that an argument with Sherlock was both pointless and aggravating, but he decided to have one anyway.

"Before you ask, the answer is yes." Sherlock said, before John could speak.

"Why Sherlock? Why do you always, always do this?"

"Despite my skills of deduction, you will have to clarify: do you ask about the drugs or my previous comment?"

Staring to raise his voice, John hastily replied "I don't care! Both of them!"

"I need the drugs to stimulate my brain," Sherlock sighed. "As of yet, there is no other stimulant besides work which can block out the boredom."

But it's illegal!"

"Why? I don't harm anyone except myself, what's all the fuss? Anyway, it's better than when I don't have anything. You know that."

At this point, John had had enough. Even after only a minute, it was clear that his friend was going to neglect his advice until his next case came up, and business hadn't exactly been booming for all of one day.

"Two years of a constant case, reaching across all the corners of the globe. Then, two days ago, you stopped a major terrorist attack on London. Yet today you end up committing suicide in the slowest of ways?"

John, I can see your concern but you must stop worrying like this. This world is so DULL! I need a case or I will continue with my... my hobby."

With that, John got up and left Sherlock to his own devices. He got out of his armchair and stormed out of the room. After speed walking down the stairs, he flung the door open only to be greeted with the sight of exactly what the pair had been looking for: a client. He was wearing a uniform which was red-themed: he had a red shirt on with a striped red and black tie covered by a black waistcoat. He was even wearing red trousers! On the man's face (aside from the quite frankly enormous hat which the client wore with dignity and pride, which would have been impossible for everyone aside from the two Holmses and this man to pull off) was an expression which he often displayed whilst at work. He was confused by the doorbell, but also clearly had a sense of wonder about him. This confused John, until he realised that the man had been about to ring it and call Sherlock back from the dark places in which he was hiding at that moment and into the real world. The man then opened his mouth and confirmed John's suspicions by saying:

"WOW! I'm Arthur Shappey and how does that doorbell work?"

"It was just a coincidence," John replied.

"Brilliant!"

 

**Cabin Lock**

By Conor Cooley

 

Starring:

 

Stephanie Cole as Ca;

Roger Allam as Doug;

John Finnemore as Art;

Benedict Cummberbatch as Mart and Sherl;

And Martin Freeman as John.

**This Week: Duxford!**


	2. the discovery of the letter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MJN must ask Sherlock and Watson for help when some champagne goes missing from the flight. While Arthur gets overexcited, Douglas and Herc compete and Martin tries to impress Theresa - with less than desirable results!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is part 2. As I said before, I'm atrocious at coming up with titles. Here we discover why Arthur rushed over to London so quickly but that's about it. Read on to find out more:

**The air. Three hours earlier.**

 

“So Ca what is this joke which you play on me now?”

“Now hear me well: I will not play your game on this trip.”

“Oh, come on.” Despite his efforts throughout the agonisingly short trip, Douglas hadn’t been able to make Carolyn either admit that she was playing or lose the game. But he was determined to win this time. “It was worth a try, though.”

“Yes it was, but I will not say the words which you want me to say.”

An argument was clearly about to erupt between the two of them. But, suddenly, a cry came from the galley: “Mum!”

“Oh, God… What have you done now, stupid child!”

That brought a smile onto Douglas’ face as he said “two sound word. Shame boss, you lose.”

“But I did not talk to you! You have to hear a two sound word which I say to you! You know the rules.”

“Fine.”

“And another thi-”

“And there it is now.”

“But that cheating!”

“There’s no rule against doing what I just did. It’s one-all Carolyn. Anyway, you should go in and see Arthur. Mr Smyth may be a patient man – he booked a flight with you over the phone – but I’m not sure how much of Arthur a human can take.”

“Douglas, please try to remember that I am your boss and not your friend. If I hear you insulting me too much then I may cut your pay and give some to Martin.”

“I can see your ruthless cunning here Carolyn, but there is one basic problem with your scheme which you have not yet taken into account: I could just get my money back.”

From the look on Carolyn’s face, Douglas was right: she clearly hadn’t taken this into consideration. However, as if to save her from a losing battle with the first officer, a note had just been discovered by Arthur. It read:

_To the crew of GERTIe,_

_I have taken the champagne out for my date with Theresa. Before you start worrying, I will buy you a new bottle as soon as I can (I couldn’t find any in Fitton). See you soon!_

After conveying this information to the rest of GERTIe’s crew, Arthur justified his actions by saying: “Mr Smyth wanted some so I went to get it… and it wasn’t there!”

“And you thought that some sort of orchestra just waltzed in here and stole it?” Asked Douglas, sarcastically.

“Do try to be serious, we cannot carry on if we get too many more bad reviews.”

“No Douglas, I didn’t just jump to that conclusion. I realised that there were 19 possible solutions; the orchestra one was close to the top however there was one situation that was clearly the most likely.”

“Wait a minute Arthur – 19?”

“Yes Mum. The first involved a robber who had snuck in here before the flight. He could have swiped the Champagne straight out of the cupboard and then used a parachute to hurl himself into a parked boat filled with cushioning. This was impossible – the angle would be too steep. Secondly, a system copied from Japanese ninjas-”

“And I always thought that you had a sense of boredom every Birling day when I acquire the Talisker.”

“Douglas, my son has never understood or been able to notice sarcasm; please could you keep your so called wit aside for now.”

“Fine.” Douglas was disappointed at this latest turn of events, but he would persevere. “You said that there was a best solution, Arthur. What was it?”

 “I thought that you had done it,” Douglas clearly wanted to interrupt Arthur to tell him that he was ‘very wrong indeed’ with his theories, but that sort of behaviour would not be allowed by the man in the galley. “As you say, you do steal the Talisker every year-”

“Apart from this year!” interrupted Carolyn – it was simply too good an opportunity to miss, but the first officer had a comeback for everything, and this occasion was no exception.

“That was only because there was no Talisker. Every year that there has been some, it has ended up in my possession.”

“Anyway, I proceeded to examine the scene more closely in order to find out more. I was brilliant! I had the perfect item for refining my theories – it was that note there!”

Douglas finally realised why Arthur was unusually bright on this day. “Have you, by any chance, been watching a lot of TV over the past week or so?”

The answer was no surprise to the experienced (in more ways than one) first officer: “yes.”

“And, during this time, were you focusing on various news channels?”

“Just like two years ago. I always did believe in Sherlock Holmes. Any ideas about how I can cheer the client up a bit?”

“Tell you what, I’ll attend to him for the rest of the flight, you just try not to talk to him from now on. I’m sure that that’ll cheer him up.”

“O.K. Thanks Mum.”

“There’s really no need Carolyn. We’ll be landing in about ten minutes,” said Douglas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments greatly appreciated, especially hints on how to improve the style, as long as you remember to be kind and have fun! Almost all of the characters are present now, just one more chapter before the investigation begins in earnest.


	3. It's all about to kick off...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MJN must ask Sherlock and Watson for help when some champagne goes missing from the flight. While Arthur gets overexcited, Douglas and Herc compete and Martin tries to impress Theresa - with less than desirable results!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So no update for over two months, what went wrong? Well sorry, I've been a bit busy but I've also been procrastinating LOADS. Anyway, I'll have the next week free so the next chapter will be up soon. But about this chapter, we meet the final main characters before everything kicks off in the next chapter. By the way, even after a lot of editing, I despise this chapter because Theresa's voice is really hard to get right. See what you think:

Duxford air museum. Five minutes ago.

 

“Oh, Martin. We’ve seen it all before and the show’s not on until later…” said Captain Martin Crief’s girlfriend playfully. Theresa, for that was her name, continued by saying “how about up there…”

Martin reacted with a sense of outrage at the idea – he was a stickler for rules (such as the fact that there should be no more than zero otters in the flight deck) and he knew that there was a generally accepted law that the public should not interrupt the communications between ATC and the planes. This forced him to voice his concern to Theresa.

“I really don’t think that we would be allowed.”

“You truly are a funny pilot Martin. Think what your first officer would do if his girlfriend wanted something.”

“He doesn’t actually have a girlfriend, Theresa.”

“But if he did…”

“Well, he would get them in there,” Martin admitted.

“Martin, do you think that that his girlfriend would be impressed by his… devotion?”

Martin was crumbling. Why was it that all of the people on his raft could always push him about? But he had an idea how to respond this time. “His illegal actions got him fired from air England and I am really devoted to you… but I’m also devoted to my career as a pilot.”

“That’s a fair point, Martin. I will talk to them.”

“How?”

“Can you remember the time when we first met? I will talk to them how I talked to that… that dragon.”

“But aren’t you worried that you’ll lose your job?”

“Martin, they don’t have the power to stop me from being the Princess of Lichtenstein.”

“Of course not… sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

 

Meanwhile in the main hangar.

 

Even though Douglas was competing with Carolyn on GERTIe, little did he know that a much tougher opponent was waiting for him on the ground. Hercules Shipwright had had plenty of experience flying planes old and new in various states of disrepair and he had always achieved a great landing. It was often the case that people would seek him out to fly the ‘special aircraft’ in air shows, and this occasion was no exception.

The plane was a very old, very expensive soviet aircraft from WWII which had been fitted with modern parts so that it still had the small but beautiful look of its body but it had a lower fuel consumption and a higher speed. The chassis of the plane came from an I-16 type 24 however all of the inside had been stripped out before the whole body (inside and out) were checked for damage; reinforced; and then given a new paint job. It was then fitted with new parts so that it looked and felt like the original, but the flying experience itself was much more environmentally friendly (and safer) than the original plane, and even GERTI-e, especially when Douglas was flying!

The plane belonged to Mr Smyth, MJN’s latest client, and it was a part of his own personal project. He had been born into an upper class English family and his personal passion had always been helping the environment. The plane was a gift to Duxford Air Museum – a fully functional classic which ran off modern fuel, and all of the parts could easily be changed out for better (greener) alternatives. He had decided on the I-16 body because a small plane was far, far more environmentally friendly and this plane was his personal favourite.

Hercules knew all of this, and he also knew how much money MJN’s client had spent in order to make it work (almost as much money as Carolyn’s company lost per year). He would have to fly very carefully otherwise the whole project would be written off and, more importantly, Douglas would gloat.

He was ready and waiting for GERTI-e to land so that he could have some fun at the museum before the flight.

 

5 minutes later, in the control tower.

 

“Hey guys, come down on the main runway, and you’d better be quick – I know how long you guys take and we’ll be starting in an hour.”

“Yes, thank you tower, we’ll be down momentarily.”

“Don’t call me momentarily! Anyway, your ‘moments’ last about 15 minutes!”

“Only when Martin’s flying. Today, I’m going it solo and so we’ll be down within five minutes.”

“Okey dokey.”

Martin had heard the entire conversation between Douglas and ATC, and his immediate reaction was one of shock and horror.

“I do not waste time! I’ll show Douglass what I’m made of when he lands, he’s really no match for me!”

It was clear to everyone that Martin was angry at his first officer, partly because of the insults but mostly because his crew would shortly be disrupting his date. However, before someone (probably Martin) could get hurt, Theresa stepped in to try to diffuse the situation.

“Calm down Martin, we could go outside, or wherever. Just try not to be too mad, you remember what happened last time…”

“I know my princess, but they were insulting me! I’m the senior person in this room…”

“Erm, I think you’ll find that’s me, Martin.”

“Oh yes, apart from you, but they never stop insulting me!”

“Well we don’t have to see them. We could just go and have some… fun somewhere else,” Theresa purred.

Martin could see the logic here but, like John Watson, he simply couldn’t agree with it.

“But Theresa, this is an I-16! I’ve wanted to see one fly in real life ever since I read about how light and manoeuvrable they are when I was 4!”

“O.K., I suppose we’d better meet them then…”

“No, we can’t do that! Have you met Douglas? Properly? Especially with us dating, it’ll be like his stag dos all over again. Did you hear about the time when him and his work mates went on a flight simulator whilst drinking shots? I thought those things were meant to be safe but by the end…”

“I don’t want to hear about it Martin!” Interrupted Theresa. “Now just choose Martin, what are we going to do?”

“O.K., well we should probably go and meet them on the runway…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments greatly appreciated, especially hints on how to improve the style, as long as you remember to be kind and have fun! Everyone's present and correct now, next time we will see what happens when Martin meets everyone else.

**Author's Note:**

> All comments greatly appreciated, especially hints on how to improve the style, as long as you remember to be kind and have fun! The next part will be longer and it will also introduce the guys at MJN.


End file.
